4 Steps to Effortlessly Start a Blog in Just a Few Hours

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Picture perfect: here are the tools and steps you need to learn how to start a style blog.

Sometimes a choice as simple as where you grab coffee before a client meeting changes everything. Last spring, I was in Atlanta on a work trip when I started talking off-hand about my plans to start blogging with a friendly stranger in a coffee shop. That person introduced me to a power-blogger who was sweet enough to give me some practical advice about how to start a style blog of my own.

The secret recipe? WordPress + Bluehost + a pre-designed template. This combination gives you the flexibility to customize and change up your web design as you grow, but is also easy enough to set up in a couple hours. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

This is how carefree you’ll feel after setting up your blog!

Step 1: Get started with Bluehost

I highly recommend using Bluehost for its flexibility and seamless ability to back up all your blog content. If you’re a website newbie like me, the 24/7 support comes in handy – and oh, did I mention it’s the No. 1 recommended hosting service by WordPress?

Go to Bluehost.com and click the “get started now” button (see above) to select the hosting package that best fits your needs. If your blog is going to rely on a lot of photography, I recommend, at minimum, the plus package for its unmetered space. It’s also really affordable. If Bluehost is running a promotion – like it is this week! – definitely take advantage of the prime plan, for its advanced site backup services if nothing else. You can never be too safe when it comes to securing your hard work!

Step 2: Pick a domain name and customize your account

While you can select a domain name from Bluehost, I’ve heard that it’s cheaper to purchase one separately and transfer it over. I bought mine from GoDaddy, where I already had a domain name for my portfolio site, and was able to get 30% off the regular price.

After securing your domain name, the next step is to fill out your account and billing information. Bluehost offers the largest discount on the 36-month term, but you can also choose from 24 months or 12 months.

Finally, you’ll want to select optional tools for security, SEO, privacy, and more. I haven’t explored these options thoroughly yet, but I do recommend checking the box for Site Backup Pro to keep your work safe.

Once you make your purchase and set up your login information, you’ll be able to manage your domain names, SSL certificates, and DNS settings from your account page. Other than those foundational back-end settings, you probably won’t need to log into WordPress very option.

It’s empowering to set up your blog from scratch!

Step 3: Select a template

There are tons of free themes on wordpress.org that you can get started with if you want to play around a little with the look and feel of your blog. That said, once you’re ready to launch your site, I highly recommend you select a professional, pre-built theme (unless you have front-end development skills, in which case go to town and design your own site!)

I purchased my first template off of Etsy, from a fantastic company called EclairDesign that has beautiful templates in the $30-$45 range. They’re perfect for fashion, food, and lifestyle blogging and at the price-point you’ll be hard pressed to find more professional-looking templates for less. They also have excellent support – I’ve asked their team any number of basic set-up questions through Etsy messaging and they always get back to me to help with my issue. They also have very clear, comprehensive set-up instructions that make it easy to add your template to WordPress.

Another great template site is Empress Themes, which is where my current theme comes from. Their price points are a little higher, but they sells a ton of pre-built add-ons that you can easily incorporate into your blog, and they have a great selection of Lightroom presets if you’re dabbling in doing your own photography as well.

*Dress: AMUR Mila dress via Rent the Runway*

Step 4: Get set up in WordPress

From your Bluehost account page, you can go directly to WordPress, which is the software that will power your blog. This dashboard view is also known as WP Admin. The quick link to log into your site is to type your domain followed by /wp-admin/ into your browser – I recommend bookmarking this! You’ll be in it a lot.

Now you can go through the instructions that came with your template to get it set up in WordPress. Your template will likely prompt you to download a set of plugins that are necessary to create its unique look. They may or may not include some of these key plugins that I recommend using:

Bluehost

This plugin integrates your WordPress site with the Bluehost control panel, including performance, security, and update features.

Yoast SEO

An all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, it includes on-page content analysis that helps you evaluate the SEO of each blog post as you create it.

MailChimp for WordPress

Use this plugin to create contact capture forms and pop-ups to start building your email list. Pro tip: get a MailChimp account and start growing that subscription list now! Future you with thank you.

Instagram Feed

Display beautifully clean, customizable, and responsive Instagram feeds anywhere on your blog.

RewardStyle Widget

If you’re a rewardStyle user, this allows you to add rewardStyle widgets throughout your site.

Simply search for these in the Plugins tab in your WordPress control bar on the left. There are a TON of other plugins out there, from ones that protect your site from spam, to image gallery managers, to optimizing your site for Google SEO. Don’t worry about these right now – you can (and will) add more plugins along the way as needs arise.

This is how carefree you’ll feel after getting your blog set up!

As far as nuts and bolts go – that’s it! You have your basic custom blog set up and you’re ready to start producing content. Don’t be nervous about googling any and all questions you have along the way – it’s important to approach this as an iterative process.